Trying Not To Be That Guy
by rosepetalsforpaper
Summary: Lee, nicknamed Link, spots a beautiful girl in the coffee shop he practically lives in as he writes papers for university. He tries to introduce himself only to get rejected, and thinks that's the end of it... until another guy isn't quite so nice. Lee decides to give him a taste of his own medicine. OC used is from The Golden Pendant with permission


The first thing he thought was, _She is the most beautiful girl I've ever seen._

The second thing, however, was, _How do I say hello without being That Guy._

Lee rested a chin on his first, pen in his hand dropping to the paper as he watched a green eyed redhead drink her coffee and read a book and tried not to turn her into a maniac pixie dream girl. Meeting somebody you didn't know in a coffee shop happened, but it wasn't exactly what he'd call a sure thing. Or, in some cases, even remotely a good idea.

Still. No harm in trying.

"Is this seat taken?"

She looked up at him and if looks could kill, hers would've left him bloody on the floor. "Yes." Her feet promptly made their way on the seat. "By me."

Lee rubbed the back of his neck. "Fair enough. Just… wanted to say hi."

"Now you've said it." She waved him off. "Hi. Bye. Nice meeting you."

"You're beautiful."

Again, if looks could kill.

He took a step back almost reflexively, if only to put more distance between him and her feet. "Sorry I just noticed you sitting there and I was hoping not to be one of those guys I'm turning into one of those guys aren't I?"

She raised an eyebrow, very much indicating 'yes'. Lee gave a sharp nod. "Right. Yeah. Before I put my foot even more in my mouth!"

Lee walked back to his table and collapsed back in his seat with an exhale. So much for _that_. He tapped his pen against his notebook, glancing at her between doodles he was doing instead of working on his outline. She was reading. She still had her feet on the chair, and her shoulders had risen an inch from the interaction.

Still one of the most beautiful girls he'd ever seen.

However, she wanted to be left alone. The least he could do was respect that.

—

A week passed. She still showed up periodically. Lee didn't know her name, even though he thought he'd heard the barista call out 'Kel' once. Not like he'd ever admit that. It was creepy enough he kept looking at her when he heard her come in. At least she'd relaxed enough she didn't tense every time he caught her eye.

Today was a particularly busy day. Lee had his laptop surrounded by a mountain of research books. He was so engrossed he didn't hear new people come in. The sound became white noise, letting him focus enough to absorb the material and turn it into some semblance of a good paper. Well, passable, at least.

That was, until he heard a getting to be familiar voice say "no, I can handle it"

Lee looked up and saw Kel at the counter, a guy just a little too close to her personal space, her halfway backed in a corner and the guy blocking her escape.

"C'mon, I'm just being nice."

She inched back. "No, I'm good."

He rolled his eyes. "Can't a guy just be _nice_?"

"I said no."

Lee sighed and got up. Hopefully that guy was straight. If yes, this was about to get _fun_.

"So, come here often?"

Kel was about to answer, but Lee just jerked his head towards the guy. "I was talking to handsome over here."

His head whipped around. "What."

Lee grinned. "Couldn't help but notice you from my table over there. Not like you're hard to spot, with how tall you are. I like it when guys are taller."

His cheeks were pink. So were Kel's, but she was hiding a grin with her hand. This guy was looking about ready to punch Lee out. "Fuck off."

"With you? Sure." Lee glanced at the barista. "I can pay for his coffee."

The creep growled. "Fuck no he's not."

"Oh come on," Lee said, waving a hand. "I'm just trying to be _nice_."

"Then _fuck off_ , fag."

Lee dropped the grin, crossing his arms. "Not till you leave her alone."

He rolled his eyes, turning his body to face Lee, now. "I'm just trying to be _nice_ , faggot. Not like you could see that."

Lee narrowed his eyes, almost glaring at him. "Ever heard homophobia is the fear men'll treat you the way you treat women?"

The guy stared, blankly, the concept having clearly gone over his head.

"I was just trying to be 'nice', too. Didn't you notice?" He reached out for a teasing brush along the guy's arm, best bedroom eyes on, only for him to jump back a foot.

"Don't _touch_ me, fag!"

Lee rolled his eyes. "Do you have any other words in your vocabulary? Scram. And if I catch you harassing anyone again…" he leaned towards the guy and smiled, lowering his voice. "I won't be so nice."

Creep was frozen in place, unable to comprehend the thought that he'd just been hit on, in public, when he'd been hitting on a girl. Lee rolled his eyes and took a step forward.

He finally got out of there.

Lee rubbed his mouth to hide a deep red blush as the shop broke out into applause. However, the noise that got his attention was a quiet scoff from behind him.

"I could've handled him myself," Kel said. "... Eventually."

Lee turned around, hand going from his mouth to the back of his neck. "Just… wanted to give him a taste of his own medicine. Sorry if I was _That Guy_ again."

She rolled her eyes, but there was the smallest hint of a relieved smile on her lips. "It _was_ fun to watch."

He cracked a smile. "It was fun to do." As the applause died down and the place returned to normal, he looked back at his table. "And Iiiii should get back to work."

"Mind if I join you?"

He paused mid step and looked at her, not quite able to keep a lopsided smile down. "I could be a smartass and say the seat's taken by my books, but nah. Feel free."

Kel shook her head but followed her back to his table. He moved the books from behind his laptop so she had room to set her coffee down before taking his seat. "I'm Lee, by the way. Or Link. If you're like basically everybody else and think I look like the character."

She laughed. "You really do."

He sat up a little straighter. "You play the games?"

She nodded. "Yep! Well… try to." She held out her hand. "Kel."

He took it. Now was not the time to admit how much he'd been hearing her order. "Nice to meet you."

She sipped her coffee from a to-go mug, eyes going over his pile of books. "What in the world are you working on."

Lee sighed. "A history of how the horse impacted Arab trade in the ancient world." He looked over his outline. "Might expand to warfare. Depends on how much I can BS this."

"Sounds fun."

"That was only partway sarcastic."

She smirked. "I like horses. I just don't know how much I'd want to write a full paper on them." Another sip. "I study their anatomy enough, thank you very much."

He raised his eyebrows, looking her up and down. "Vet classes?"

"Yeeeep." She tapped her fingers against the cup. "Technically, I'm in premed, but if I don't take some animal related classes I'm dead in the water come vet school applications."

"Good luck with that." Lee looked between the book open beside him and the blank space in his document where the next sentence was _supposed_ to go. "I am but a lowly music major who avoided all sciences once the required credits were filled. And who now sticks as close to the humanities and liberal arts as I can get."

She shifted back in her chair, going from perched to actually sitting. "Do you ride, at all? Or just interested?"

"I ride." He minimized the paper, going straight for his pictures and pulling up images of a chestnut mare with a blaze pattern on her nose, silver-dapple mane, and white socks. "That's her."

Kel leaned over as he turned his laptop, mouth going into an o as soon as she caught sight of the image. "She's gorgeous."

He smiled. "Her name's Epona. I've had her since I was a kid. And since _she_ was a kid. Well. Filly."

"This is mine." She held up her phone, showing a picture of a grey, speckled horse with blue undertones. "Katara."

He leaned over the table to get a better look, eyebrows going up once he'd taken in the horse. "Beautiful horse." He settled back down in his chair and winked at Kel. "Like her rider."

"... Are you flirting with me?"

Lee propped his chin on a fist. "If you're alright with that."

She turned her head to look at the rest of the cafe, but she kept looking at him out of the corner of her eyes. "Well you _did_ back off when I deathglared you, and you didn't talk to me till I talked to you after that… I guess it's okay." She continued sipping her coffee. "Although I maintain I could've handled myself with that guy."

He snorted. "I'll give you that. You really could've. That deathglare is lethal."

She raised an eyebrow. "Oh really, now?"

"Yep." He leaned back in his chair, hands behind his head. "I had to get stitches after two of those."

"Yet here you are, still alive."

"Am I really?" He held up his hands beside his face, wiggling his fingers. "I could be a ghost, for all you know."

Kel darted up and poked his shoulder. "You feel pretty solid to me."

"Ectoplasm can be solid."

She shook her head, but the smile that had been growing over the conversation was still very much there. "I could write a whole paper on why that statement is wrong."

"Do it." Lee looked back at his outline, then the book, and not at her for the first time the whole conversation. "Like, right now, because I'm at page two of seven and this thing is due… eight am tomorrow?"

Kel raised an eyebrow, looking up from the table. "You're a worse procrastinator than me."

He pulled the paper back up and actually wrote a few words of his next sentence. "Or I'm a fast writer and have an A in bullshitting papers."

"I should talk. Actually, I shouldn't. I have a midterm in two days and I've barely studied." She lifted up her coffee. "Why I got _this_ to go. And I drank half of it here."

He glanced up, wicked gleam in his eye to match a lopsided smirk. "I'd apologize, but you asked to join me…"

She got up and waved a hand. "Yeah, yeah. Nice talking to you. See you around."

Lee waved her off and went back to his paper. He got to page five before the place started to clear out for the inordinately early for an establishment catering to students who have projects due Monday closing time of five pm. Stretching was mandatory when he got up, as was looking over the table to see what he'd have to cram into his backpack after rifling through it all day.

A napkin with a phone number was behind his laptop, out of sight, and far enough away it wouldn't get knocked off the table. He picked it up and pulled out his phone, entering in the number.

 _'Kel?'_

He stuffed the phone in his pocket and began putting away books. When he was half done, his phone buzzed.

 _'Took you long enough, dork.'_

Lee grinned. _'Says the girl who should be studying. At least *I* was working on my paper.'_

She didn't reply.

He snorted. _'Good luck on that midterm, since I shouldn't be talking to you.'_

 _'Then stop texting me already.'_

He made a new contact before shoving the phone back in his pocket.

—

Three days later he was back in the exact same coffee shop, another mountain of books around his laptop for a _different_ paper this time, when a bag plopped in the chair across from him. He looked up to see Kel taking off her coat.

"Go ahead," he said dryly, "make yourself at home."

She grinned. "Figured the seat was only for your books!"

He sighed, smiled, and grabbed the aforementioned book on her side and put it on the pile to his right. "How'd the midterm go?"

She scrunched up her face, sticking her tongue out.

He laughed. "That well, huh?"

She dropped the expression and settled into the chair, bag now on the floor, slouching a little. "It actually went okay. It was just, like, ten times harder than what's in the classes."

"One of _those_ profs, I take."

"Oh yeah." She sat up again, scanning over the title of a book in the pile. "What paper are you working on _this_ time? Cause that book ain't about horses."

He kept writing while he talked, making both his fingers and mouth work slower. "What brought about Renaissance music with a thesis focusing on how the classical musicians of that time period had a similar lifestyle, popularity and mass hysteria included, to modern day rock stars."

She stared at him.

He glanced up, finishing his sentence before speaking, this time. "I'm a bigger geek than you thought?"

She nodded. "Geek apparently doesn't even cover it."

"Not going to argue," he said, trying to keep a smile off his face. "'Course, _you've_ barely told me anything, so you could be a bigger geek than me."

Kel rolled her eyes. "I just like horses."

"And ghosts."

Lee looked up, meeting a deathglare that was shifting from withering to amusing after just a few days. He pointed his pen at her. "You were the one who mentioned writing a paper on why ectoplasm can't be solid."

She crossed her arms and looked away, muttering something he couldn't quite catch.

He leaned on the table, arms crossed against its surface. "What was that?"

"I said ghosts are freaky." She shifted, crossing her arms tighter. "Might as well know more about them so I know what _isn't_ a ghost."

He laughed at her expense, short enough it wasn't impolite but he did let it out.

She wrinkled her nose. "I'm sure _you_ have something embarrassing like that. And I'm going to find it. Just you wait. You've got music but there must be… something else."

He shrugged and went back to writing, only pausing momentarily when Kel pulled out her textbook and put it on the table with a thud. He cast a cautionary glance at the three inch thick tome and was, once again, thankful he had no inkling to enter hard sciences. He thought this while ignoring the similar three inch tomb on music theory he had beside him. _That_ , at least, was a library book.

Eventually the brewing headache pushed him away from his computer, fingers tangling in the chain of the necklace his best friend had given him yesterday. The dog tags attached to it flipped out of his shirt, clinking together in time with the throbbing behind his temples. Lee groaned.

Kel looked up, arms folded over her book. "Had enough?"

He tugged on the chain before letting it drop. "I still have five more pages… and I've written seven."

"Ew."

He nodded and raked his fingers through his hair. "I know what I want to say, at least…"

She made an absent sound of acknowledgement, apparently not paying attention. Lee didn't think anything of it and let his head hang back to stretch the muscles. That was, until she said "What is that?"

He picked his head up. "Hm?"

"That necklace."

He reached towards it again and held it up. "Friend made it for me after I… had fun with that creep."

She leaned forward to get a better look; he did the same and fanned the two out so she could see the pink, purple and blue stripes on the one dog tag, and 'pride' carved out on the tag above it, to reveal the colours under.

She frowned. "Is… that…"

He chuckled and dropped the tags. "Bi pride. My friend Sarah said if I was going to keep pulling stunts like I did the other day, she wanted every guy to know I _could_ mean it."

Kel raised an eyebrow. "Did you?"

"With him? Oh hell no." He grinned and tucked the tags back in his shirt. "I have standards."

She settled back into her chair. "So you really are bi?"

He nodded.

She stayed quiet for awhile, not going back to her reading even though Lee had already gone back to his paper, despite how writing each sentence was like pulling teeth.

"I guess I can't use _that_ against you, seeing as you've got it on display."

He paused, shaking his head mostly to have his mind change topics. "Maybe when I was a teenager. Grown into it, now." He finger combed his bangs forward. "People are still jerks about it, but not like I can change who I like."

He hoped she knew "people" didn't include her, even if he didn't have any evidence stating she _wouldn't_ be a jerk about it. And how in another situation, yes that statement would cover her for that simple reason.

"... Oh." Unfortunately, she got quiet after that. She wasn't shrinking back the way she had a week ago, but it was still extremely familiar. Lee saw it every time somebody didn't know what he was about, what stereotypes he fit and which ones he broke. Even other bi people had that reaction, although normally it was less. Still. He didn't know her well enough to gauge what she thought.

His first instinct was to give her his well practiced speech on what, exactly, being bi meant, but with the current headache still brewing and not enough sleep for the past week, it would not come out right. She was already nervous. He didn't want to make it worse.

She broke the silence before he did.

"You wanna go for a ride sometime?"

Lee looked up from staring at his keyboard, blinking at her still-stiff body language, watching a very, very small smile spread across her lips. "Sure, I guess."

The stiffness eased out. "You don't sound very convinced."

Lee gave a small smile, looking down at his keyboard again. "Naw, I wanna go. I just can't think right now." He glanced at his screen, glared at the unfinished sentence, and stood up. "I'm going to get more coffee. Want anything?"

Her grin grew lopsided and she completely relaxed, now. "Hot cider with a dash of cinnamon."

"I envy how you don't need something to wake up." He put one hand on top of a book pile. "You'll keep an eye on this stuff?"

"Of course."

He walked over to the line and ordered something strong plus loaded with chocolate for himself, and the cider for Kel. Both in to go mugs to minimize the risk of it spilling over, even if the likelihood they'd leave with those cups was slim.

He put it down in front of her and slid back in his seat. She looked up in gratitude, taking it and lifting the pull tab. "How much do I owe you?"

"Nothing." He erased the sentence in some attempt to regain his train of thought, seeing as that one was abandoned. "I got it."

She smiled. "Thanks."

He hadn't realized how much he liked making her smile.


End file.
